


Lost causes

by Happykiss



Category: In Bruges (2008)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-06
Updated: 2016-04-06
Packaged: 2018-05-31 15:41:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6476176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Happykiss/pseuds/Happykiss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My take on how Ray and Ken became partners in crime</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost causes

"Move!" 

The big guy hissed while pulling the younger man along with him. Even though he had always considered himself a rather strong bloke, he still had to tug with all his might to get the kid to follow. 

"Oh for the love of god. Ray, we have to go. Now!"

But the brunet just stared at Ken, his eye's seemed dull and had a far away look in them. He was slowly dragging his feet, stumbling blindly alongside th we wooden benches after his partner.

In the distance a siren started to sound, quietly at first but it seemed that the blaring was nearing steadily. They might be coming for them. Or they might not be.

Suddenly, Ken turned around and took one more look at Ray's dazed face before opening his hand and delivering a sound blow to the young man's cheek. 

The sound of the slap echoed through the church and Ray's hand flew to his reddening face while he opened his mouth in a shocked and surprised cry.

That treatment however seemed to have knocked his tongue loose.

"What the fuck are you hitting me for?" He snarled at Ken and tried to pull his wrist away from the other man's strong grip but it was no use. Ken's hands were the size and strength of a grizzly's paw.

Relieved at the sudden recovery, the older man let out his breath and continued to quickly lead both of them away. 

Their car was parked where they had left it in the alley beside the church and they quickly got in. 

"What the bloody hell are you waiting for? The police will be here soon," the brunet shouted when they were sitting down but Ken didn't give any indication of starting the car. The young man's nerves were laying blank by now and his heart was racing in his chest. He felt like he was going to explode from nervous energy if they weren't moving anytime soon.

"Fasten your seatbelt."

"Are you shitting me?" Ray screamed in frustration. 

Ken leveled him with a glare and lifted a single eyebrow. 

"Sheesh, man. Alright, alright," he grumbled but quickly put on his belt and finally Ken started the car to take them both away to safety. 

That certainly, had not gone down the way it was supposed to. Ken knew, they were in deep, deep trouble now. 

\---------------  
6 Years ago

Inside the smoky little room, four men were sitting at the bar, drinking and laughing with each other. They were telling each other about the different jobs that they had completed during the last week. 

Someone had smashed in windows to inspire a shop owner to pay them their monthly dues. Two of them shared that they had been send to burn down a shed where a couple of small time crackheads were trying to start their own marijuana plantation. Of course that market had long been taken and the newcomers had to understand that - the hard way.

One of the guys on the bar was quiet though. He sipped his drink and stared at the beer pump, listening to the other men's tales. 

He didn't need to share his stories because he felt it was nothing special to impress anyone with. 

He had been send to kill a man that had been cheating on his wife. 

That alone was nothing out of the ordinary, really. A lot of married couples cheated on each other, sometimes they even did it for years. But this man was quite unfortunate because the woman he had been cheating on was no other than old Harry's sister-in-law.

Which wouldn't have mattered much but she was also the favourite of the three sisters of Harry's wife. The scorned woman had now been sitting in Harry's guest room for two weeks, crying and raging and being utterly heartbroken, which in turn had Harry's wife tending to her during all that time.

Harry quite missed his wife and her wifely attentions and being the family man that he was, ordered a hit on the cheating scumbag to restore the peace and quiet in his own home.

That is what job Ken had been told to do and that was exactly the thing he had done. It hadn't been difficult or taxing. It was just something that Ken did. 

So, he was sitting there and slowly sipping his beer while listening to the other Fellas. 

"Evening boys," the boss, Harry himself, greeted them while coming down the narrow stairs into the celler that held the bar. 

With him came a boy, a teenager with dark brown hair that was so long that it easily fell into his eyes. 

He trotted behind Harry, a couple of feet carefully kept between them. Never slowing but also never pushing forward to enter Harry's space. Clever kid.

They both descended quickly and while Harry took his personal seat at the bar, a spot that no other sane man dared to ever sit in or even touch, the boy stopped at the foot of the stairs and kept staring out from under his long bangs. 

The other fellas quickly turned their attention towards their boss to tell him yet again about their past dealings. 

Ken still stared at the pump but now he secretly mustered the boy through the reflection in the polished metal without him noticing a thing. 

He looked a bit scrawny but that could be because of his oversized jumper and baggy pants. Could be good if Harry wanted to use him as a runner. His face however was quite a spectacular sight. His left temple down to the jaw was a mottled picture of dark bruises. The lip was split and crusted over in several places and one of his partially hidden eyes glowed out red because of, what Ken assumed, were a couple of busted veins. 

"Pretty sight, innit?" Harry's voice floated through the room and the other men abruptly turned around to stare at the boy in silence. A couple of whistles could be heard but that was it. 

Harry stared at Ken from the other side of the counter. The man had a sharp mind and even sharper eyes and he knew that the hitman had already assessed the boy. 

The teenager shuffled his feet under the scrutinizing gaze of the men and shuffled his feet a bit. "You fucktarts want a photograph, or what?" He hissed out without moving from his spot. 

Before one of the blokes was able to jump over and pound the boy some more for his cheek, Harry laughed out loud. 

"That's quite enough, boyo. You just don't know when you're in over your head, do you? Like your old man, that idiot never knew when to stop either," the man mocked.

But evidently, the kid actually knew when to keep his trap shut because he didn't start arguing with Harry.

"Billy, pour the boy a drink. You are old enough?" The boss asked in ernest. You could say what you wanted about the murderous psychopath that Harry was, he had his principles especially when it came to children. 

The kid slouched forward to stand at the bar and nodded at Billy who had pulled a pint for him. "I'm eighteen in four months," he mumbled.

"Right, I couldn't remember. Your father didn't speak of you much," Harry thought out loud. 

If that statement bothered the boy, he didn't let it show. He just took a long sip of his drink, grimacing a little when the glass connected with his sore mouth.

"He wasn't too bright, your old man. But he was useful. Always kept true to his word and no slight of hand whatsoever," Harry continued. 

"And we take care of our own, don't we boys?" The boss questioned while glancing over at Ken. Quickly, responses like 'sure thing' and 'of course' even a 'fuck yeah' chorused through the room but Ken only gave a curt silent nod.

"Right then. This here is Johns' son, ah -" 

"Ray," the boy offered quickly. 

"Young Raymond will be taking up his fathers mantle and we will show him how things are handled around here," Harry droned on and he too liked to see the interest in his men's eyes when he told a tale himself.

"You can all see that he can hold his own in a fight well enough because where his good old dad is now laying in some damp cellar on a metal tray waiting to be burnt to ashes, Ray here is alive and the fucker that came to their home to kill them both is nicely deposited inside a dumpster behind their house, with a broken neck. Even though it was more of a lucky accident then skillful disposal on the boy's side. Still promising, I'd say," Harry finished with crashing his fist onto the bar and he barked out a laugh that send shivers down the other fellas backs. But of course they quickly joined into the laughter.

Ken and the boy however stayed silent. 

"Oh cheer up, you two. You are ruining the mood. But I think you will do well with my decision. Ken, meet your new shadow," Harry suddenly stood and made to leave when two different sets of hands latched onto each on his sleeves.

"I'm not taking the boy."

"I'm not going with that bloke."

Both voices folded over each other and the pair stared at each other in surprise.

Harry shook their hands off with a shrug and didn't even slow his ascent up the stairs. "There, you are quite perfect for each other. Don't let me hear any complaints ever again," he told them without looking back before he exited the room.

Ken and the kid still glared at each other when Billy raised his glass to a toast. "Mazeltov Ken, it's a boy." 

And everyone started laughing again. 

"Fuck you," both replied as one. 

Ray and the big man locked eyes one last time before finally taking off together. 

Upon exiting onto the street, Ray started walking behind Ken in the same manner as he had done before with Harry. 

Ken slowed down and waited for the boy to get next to him but Ray stopped a little distance behind the big man. 

Ken rolled his eyes. Of course, the boy choose to be difficult.

"Right. So, do you need anything from your place?" Ken asked his new apprentice while continuing to walk on. 

He saw the boy shake his head in the reflection of a shop window. 

"Harry said I can't go back," Raymond replied sullenly. 

Of course, Ken just remembered that the police must have declared the boy's home a crime scene and they would most likely take the kid in for questioning if he showed up there. Or worse.

"Did he take care of everything then?" The big man asked before stopping next to his old beat-up vauxhall and unlocking the doors.

The boy instantly walked to the other side and dropped himself into the passenger seat. "Yeah, I guess. He threatened the neighbors to keep quiet about me being there. And to tell the police that I had moved out a couple of months ago to live with my mum back in Dublin," Ray told him. 

Ken put his key into the ignition but didn't start the motor yet. "She's in Ireland then, your mother?" He thought the problem could be just as easily solved if the kid could be persuaded to go and live with his actual parent instead of being stuck with Ken.

"I don't know where the hell she is, all right? She could be in Hawaii or fucking Timbuktu for all I know. Might be dead-" the kid snapped at the big man while clenching both of his hands tightly. It looked like he was ready to hit Ken if he dared to speak another word about his mother. 

Ken lifted his hands from the steering wheel in a gesture of surrender. "Easy tiger. I didn't know your old John that well and he never spoke about his family. Don't get all riled up now, all right?!"

Ray blew out an angry breath through his nose through his nose but had already collected himself. "Are we going anywhere today, or are you actually living in this dumb-shit piece of a car?" 

Ken raised an eyebrow at the swearing youth. "You have to put your seatbelt on."

"Are you for real?" Ray asked incredulously. 

The older man just nodded and the kid threw up his hands in an annoyance. "Oh my god, are you some kind of nutjob or what? Why did Harry have to stick me with you?" The boy wailed but started to buckle his belt. When he had finished, Ken calmly started the car and they drove in silence through the thick traffic of London while it started to rain.

The boy looked like he was sulking at first, with a tight scowl on his face but after a while his shoulders started to slump and he leaned his head tiredly against the window and watched the raindrops slide down on the glass.

"Does your head hurt? Looks like you took a couple of nasty blows there."

"Yeah well, you should see the other guy. Or maybe not, cause he's dead as a doornail," the boy pondered out loud. 

"You didn't pass out or anything? After it happened, I mean," Ken asked rather carefully because this angry teenager seemed like a bloody box of nitro right now. He'd likely explode if prodded too hard.

Ray closed his eyes tiredly. "No. I did loose my dinner though."

"That's ok. Happens to everyone," Ken offered in an attempt to cheer him up and Ray opens his uninjured eye to glare at him. 

"And you're the expert in that field or what? How many people did you off then?" The boy answered in a mocking tone. 

"26, I think," the big man shot back without hesitation and the boy jerked his head up in surprise. 

"Are you shitting me? You're a killer?" 

"I think the word killer is a bit out of fashion nowadays. I believe liquidator or problem solver is the new preferred term."

Ray gaped at the man for a second before his ever quick mouth unfroze. "Liquidator my ass. Harry wants me to learn from you how to kill people?"

Ken shrugged his shoulders. "Apparently so."

"Wicked," was the boy's only reply and Ken was wise enough to leave it at that.


End file.
